Mr. Scot

I don't give a damn who wins MVPs, especially given that MVPs pretty much never win Super Bowls But I do notice that besides shifting to that, you're also now shifting to drafted QB's instead of first round quarterbacks. Given that Brady skews everything, I'm not surprised.

I'm not dead certain it's going to be a question. I've seen an awful lot of speculation that at least the top four quarterbacks will be gone before we pick, and in some cases maybe even the top five. The first three picks being quarterbacks is pretty much a lock, and Breer pointed out that both Atlanta and Detroit are open to trading down with teams that might be looking to get one of the top five. Heck, even if one does fall to eight, is it someone the Panthers really like?

Following up the suggestion that a first round pick was the only way to go by naming nearly half a dozen first round busts certainly didn't help yours Neither did appealing to recent Super Bowl history as evidence for first round picks do much when you consider that the vast majority of Super Bowls over the last several years have been won by a sixth round pick who was stuck behind a first-round pick for the first few years of his career; that same guy who this past year would have fit your definition of a castoff. Also the same dude who lost the Super Bowl just a few years back to another "castoff". The reality is there's no single path to Super Bowl victory. Plenty of teams have won it with guys that didn't succeed in their first spot.

Ah, but pray tell how did they come into the league?

See, this is why it's fun debating with you. Given time, you typically own yourself. All those guys you just listed as castoffs, guess what they were before that?

You do realize (and given who I'm talking to I know that's assuming a lot) that Darnold is only 23, right? And I realize that Albert Breer's analysis doesn't carry as much weight as a tweet from last year, but still...

Yeah, like that Brees guy. What did he ever win? Same with that guy the Packers picked up that had a funny last name. Brett something...

Gruden kept shifting quarterbacks rather than sticking with one and developing them. That's basically the approach you're advocating. And seriously, if you want to emulate the Browns, you'd best be prepared for this:

I call it the lottery approach because it's a lot like trying to get rich through buying lottery tickets. "Maybe this quarterback's a winner. Oh wait, he wasn't? Well let's get another one and maybe that one will be a winner."

We call that the Jon Gruden approach. Quick Tip: It doesn't work. See Also: The Cleveland Browns

I don't necessarily think next offseason is the deadline. I do believe you can give him two years. Might even be wise to do so. Suppose he looks good after the first year but not so good after the second one?

The team can restructure his deal so that it's basically a little over eleven and a half million per year for the next two seasons.

Oh sure, those are easy to find. Hell, most successful teams just get the best quarterback they can find and don't bother putting jack sh-t around them. I mean if they need stuff like receivers, offensive linemrn and a run game to be good, are they really worth it?

The more I read, the more I think the best approach with Darnold might be to basically treat him like a rookie and coach him up the way you would if this was his first year in the NFL.

Also FYI, there's a lot of other good stuff in this article (including a discussion of what the Falcons might do at 4). I recommend reading the whole thing.

In his latest mailbag (link) From Danny (@BetTheOver85): How likely/unlikely is it that Sam Darnold becomes Ryan Tannehill 2.0 and rejuvenates his career? Danny, I think Carolina’s got a shot to resurrect Darnold’s career. Getting a left tackle to bookend with Taylor Moton, and maybe that’s Sewell at No. 8, would help. But from there, he’s got Robbie Anderson and D.J. Moore to throw to, and Christian McCaffrey alongside him, and that should at least give offensive coordinator Joe Brady a foundation to build off of. I believe your comp is pretty apt, too. One thing Tannehill needed coming out of Miami was a coach who’d get him playing fast again, and Arthur Smith was that guy—lifting the mental load off the 2012 first-round pick (giving, for example, line calls to the center) in an effort to just let him play. To me, Darnold needs the exact same sort of thing going to Charlotte, and I think Brady’s astute enough to know it and give it to him. The truth is that Darnold too often over the last couple of years was asked to operate like Peyton Manning once did in Adam Gase’s offense. And that was as a quarterback who arrived in the pros as a raw prospect in need of development, which, to me, explains how his wiring got fouled up. As such, to get him right, I think Brady would do well to let him go out and be more of a bus driver type and build from there. In this case, I really believe asking less of a player—and that should be even easier to do if McCaffrey’s back at 100% in the fall—will mean getting more out of him. ... This makes a lot of sense. The one quarterback that Gase had any real success with was Peyton Manning, but Manning didn't really need a coach at that point in his career. For all intents and purposes, he was a coach. So if what Gase did with Tannehill and Darnold was basically ask them to operate the same way Manning did, it explains a lot. Heck, a lot of veteran quarterbacks couldn't even do that.

Possible snag...

Well, Lord knows an ambiguous tweet from last year certainly means more than what he's said publicly in just the last few days, right?

The Steelers hurt his pride

Last I saw, he's both.

Probably a good one though. Ryan was rumored to be the top candidate for OC before Joe Brady came into the picture.

Yep. Lousy way to pick a head coach though. I had a former brother-in-law who was a very fun person to be around. As far as trust though, I wouldn't put him in charge of a lemonade stand, much less anything more important.

Pretty sure he's still unsigned.

He's a UNC guy if I remember correctly.

As I recall, Woody Johnson kept Rex Ryan despite poor results because he loved his bravado. (I remember shaking my head when I read that)